Incompatibility between new and existing products is a major problem in many technical disciplines including networking and signal switching. Often new products are developed having increased data rates but customers have invested heavily in legacy products operating at a slower data rate.
For example, high end routers are now using switched crossbars that operate at data rates up to 5 Gb/s to transfer data between line cards. However, customers may have a significant investments in line cards that operate at a slower data rate. These switched crossbars use serial links between the crossbar switches which are often implemented as Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). The ASICs are connected to serializer/deserializer (SerDes) chips which convert the parallel data processed internally by the ASIC into serial data streams which are transmitted on the backplane.
One approach to implementing data transfer between SerDes chips operating at different data rates has been to manipulate the data rate of the SerDes operating at the faster data rate. However, such approaches generally add to the complexity and power consumption of the SerDes part.
Accordingly, improved techniques for implementing backwards compatibility are required to preserve significant investments in equipment.